


An Atypical Christmas Story

by ughdotcom



Category: Original Work
Genre: Agender Character, Atheist Character, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Catholic Character, Child Abuse, Don't copy to another site, Genderfluid Character, Hanukkah, High School, Homelessness, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Inaccurate Catholicism, Internalized Homophobia, Jewish Character, M/M, Muslim Character, Nonbinary Character, Other, Parody of Every Christmas Movie Ever, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Racism, Romance, Satanist Character, Sexism, Teen Romance, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21716098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ughdotcom/pseuds/ughdotcom
Summary: Sami Khalil is really tired of Christmas Music. She's hates Christmas season. Everything is Christmas themed. And she's just a muslim girl waiting for the radio to be normal again.Dale Garcia has been an atheist her whole life. Her mom and dad were never really religious, and they never celebrated Christmas. She feels annoyed that she's always expected to celebrate SOMETHING.Zion Rashid is jewish. Yes, jewish. No, they aren't muslim. Yes, One of their best friends is muslim. Yes, they celebrate Hanukkah. Yes, this Christmas hype is still annoying. Why? Because there is no Hanukkah hype.Amir Pavlov-Santos-Abdel has three last names and is agonistic. The reason for both is that he has three parents. Yeah, three. His dad, his papa, and his mami. And when 2 are christian and 1 is muslim what is he supposed to be?Matthias Johnson hates Christmas. His parents try to get him to convert everyone at school, and they've just kicked his twin sibling out for being nonbinary. What the fuck is he supposed to do?
Relationships: Amir Pavlov-Santos-Abdel/Matthias Johnson, Original Character/Original Character/Original Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Sami Khalil/Dale Garcia/Zion Rashid
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

“Oh to be able to turn on the radio and not hear christmas music.” Sami Khalil mused aloud as she turned through channels. Even the top 50 stations were playing Christmas music.

“I know right.” Dale Garcia said. She was tossing a magic 8 ball up and down. “Hey, magic ball” she snorted “is the radio a prick for only playing Christmas music?” she shook it hard before turning it over “‘outlook not so good’. What the  _ fuck _ does that mean?”

“That you shouldn’t ask a ball with a die inside for answers.” Zion Rashid answered sarcastically.

“Oh fuck off.” Dale flipped them off, as Sami groaned.

“I swear you get these pessimistic outlooks from your mom.”

“Which one? Plus, you agree with me. I know you.”

“Both of them. Esther  _ and _ Anjali.”

“Never use my moms’ first names to my face again. Also do you agree with me? That’s the more pressing issue.”

Sami just sighed and nodded.

The two girls and Zion sat in Sami’s bedroom. Sami was sprawled across her bed fussing with her radio, trying to find a station that hadn’t decided that December meant Christmas music all day every day. Dale was lying on the floor, legs tossed onto Sami’s desk chair, tossing the ball. Zion was sitting criss cross applesauce on the carpet, leaning on her hands and chewing on their stim necklace.

“Just use Spotify, Sam.” they said as Sami groaned when yet another station was playing Mariah Carey.

“Don’t have Spotify. Plus I have nothing to play it through.” She twisted the knob again “If I hear ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ again I’m going to blow a hole through my head.”

“Stop joking about your depression.” Dale objected.

“I have it. And we can just play it through the phone. Yeah, we’re all depressed.”

“Objection! None of us can agree on music.” Dale said, raising her hand slightly. “Sami wants pop, I want emo, and Zion wants alt and punk. While Zi and I could live with each other’s choices, Sami couldn’t.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Could you?”

“No.”

“Exactly.”

“Just play Panic! or FOB.” Zion said, rolling their eyes. “They have no genre but good.”

“Zion, I am terrified of you.” Dale said as Zion typed the band names into their phone.

“Who isn’t?” Sami said, as Zion said:

“Good.”

The three laughed as the sun set.

**The camera draws away from the house, showing a pretty scene where the snow is falling. The house is the only one not decorated for Christmas, but it does have snow people outside. One is wearing a hijab, the other is decorated like the others on the block. Letters typed an a typical font are displayed on the screen: A TYPICAL CHRISTMAS STORY. In a red handwritten font an N and an A appear, making it read AN ATYPICAL CHRISTMAS STORY.**

“Amir Miguel Ira Pavlov-Santos-Abdel!”

Amir slammed his laptop shut, opened it again, saved his story, closed the laptop and paused his music, taking his headphones and running downstairs. “Sorry Papa, Dad, Mami!”

His dad, Samuil, sighed. “We were calling you.”

“I was writing.”

“I don’t see why that means you have to have your music up so loud.” his papa, Fahrid, said from the table.

“In my defense it was political punk.”

“Objection! That doesn’t mean it has to be so loud.”

“Getting into lawyer mode, I see.”

His mami, Arabella, laughed “yeah, I have a trial tomorrow.”

“Good luck.” Amir said as Samuil scooped food onto his plate. “Explain your case.”

“Please understand that I am not a criminal lawyer.”

“Please understand that I would like to hear your tale.”

“Fine. This doctor was on call and was called in to operate on this girl. He was late because he had been having sex. He was distracted during the surgery and accidentally killed the girl.”

“Dick.”

“Yep.”

“Language!”

Arabella and Fahrid spoke at the same time and Amir laughed.

Samuil sat down at the table. “Computer away, darling, we’re eating.”

She closed her computer and pushed it aside. “So, Amir, what are you writing?”

“It’s a rewrite of one of those stupid Christmas movies but in this one two people who don’t celebrate Christmas navegate the Christmas season and fall in love. One’s muslim and the other’s a satanist. And they’re both boys.”

“A satanist, huh?”

“Nico says that a lot of Satanism isn’t actually based around worshipping Satan and actually loving yourself. That’s the reason he’s a satanist. In his words: ‘you have to combat the depression somehow.’”

“Have I mentioned that I am genuinely terrified of Nico?” Fahrid said casually.

“He’d be proud. Can he come over to dinner sometime soon? I bet he’d love to have dinner with people who accept him as genderfluid.”

“Sure!”

“His parents don’t accept him?!”

“Thanks Dad. Yeah, Mami, they insist he’s a girl.”

“Tell Nico he can have dinner at our house whenever he wants.”

“Kay.”

The happy family sat around their table, eating their food and casually discussing life and other topics.

Matthias Johnson sat at the dinner table silently with his mother and father, Emilia and Zacharias Johnson. His twin sibling Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Elizabeth?”

“Dinner is not for talking, Matthias.” Emilia said, but after a few moments of silence she cracked. “We kicked her out.” She had no emotion in her voice when she said that, simply stated it as a fact.

He tries to mimic that stone cold face when he speaks, but his voice cracks. “Why?”

“She insists she isn’t a girl or a boy. She was going by the name Taylor.” Zacharias responded instead of Emilia.

“Oh.” he wondered if he should mention that there are a lot of those at his school. He decided that it would be a terrible idea.

“Remember, using they and them as pronouns is a sign of demonic possession.”

“Ok.”

Internally, Matthias was freaking out. It wasn’t like he was nonbinary, but he had no clue what was happening to Taylor on the streets. What if they had to resort to prostitution? He was very concerned for them.

And what would happen if his parents figured out that he was gay?


	2. Chapter 2

Taylor sat in a janitor’s closet, crying. How long would it be until they ran out of money? How long till it was too cold to sleep outside? How long till the school found out they didn’t live with Emilia and Zacharias? Would Matthias hate them? That would be the worst, if their brother hated them.

They sobbed again. The doorknob turned and another person walked. “Omigod, are you okay?” they said.

“No.”

“Ok.” the other person closed the door and sat across from them. “You want to talk?”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Nico Spencer, and I’m genderfluid, and my pronouns are he/him. If they change, I’ll inform you. You?”

“Taylor. They/them.”

“You want to talk?”

“I was kicked out for being nonbinary.”

“Shit, that sucks.”

“Yeah, my family really religious, and apparently they/them pronouns are a sign of demonic possession.”

Nico snorted “are there enough demons to possess every enby?”

“Probably. I’m not even that worried about being homeless, it’s just… what if my brother hates me?”

“I’m sure he won’t. Now about being homeless… I can’t take you in, but I have a friend who could? It’s lunch, we could get you cleaned up and go meet him?”

Taylor nodded at that.

“Ok. I think I’ve got a tissue around here somewhere…” Nico dug in both his hoodie and leather jacket pockets, before checking his backpack, pulling out a crumpled pack of tissues. “Ah-ha that’s the bitch.” Noticing Taylor’s concerned expression he shrugged. “I’m pretty sure they’re clean.”

“Pretty sure?”

“Listen I don’t know where half the shit in my pockets comes from, so you’re just gonna have to believe that because they’re in plastic they’re clean.”

They snorted “okay.”

Nico took one out of the pack and gently began cleaning Taylor’s face. After he had finished he frowned. “Your eyes are still kinda puffy and your face is kinda red, but unless someone’s looking for it, they couldn’t tell you’d been crying.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. You’re going to love my friend.”

Amir didn’t understand how Nico made friends. Nico had little to no social skills, but he talked. That was probably how. Nico talked. A lot. About everything. He has a new obsession? You bet you’re going to hear about it. So that was probably how Nico ended up bringing a new person to their lunch table.

Or he could believe the story that he was telling. Which actually wasn’t that unbelievable.

“You want me to take Taylor because their parents kicked them out?” Nico nodded. “Allahu Akbar - I mean.”

“Dude, my parents might be the most religious people you’d ever meet, but I’m not going to hate you because you’re middle eastern.”

“Thank fuck. I wouldn’t want you to hate my papa.”

“So I can…?”

Amir nodded. “You can stay at mine.”

Zion really hated noise. Really hated it. It could get so overwhelming sometimes. So that was why they were sitting in the dark science lab listening to Danger Days through shitty earbuds, chewing on their stim necklace, and fidgeting with their fidget cube instead of joining Sami and Dale at their table. They knew they’d have to make it up to them later, but right now… right now they just couldn’t put up with the lunchroom noise.

They flopped onto their back. They loved this room. When it was being used for science they could focus on one of their special interests, and Ms. Hall always let them wear headphones if the noise get too much. And she had also given them the key they used to get in. They wondered if they could use the science lab right now. Probably not. Probably a bad idea.

The light flipped on. They scrunched their eyes closed and started to shake their head. The light flipped back off again, and someone sat in front of them.

It was Sami, and her lips were moving. Zion shook their head and setting down their fidget cube so they could tap their headphones.

_ Sorry _ . Sami signed. Zion smiled at Sami to indicated that it was okay.  _ Sensory? _ They nodded.  _ Talk no? _ That could mean  _ can you talk _ or  _ are you nonverbal right not? _ Technically they meant the same thing, but had two different answers.

_ Unclear _ they signed.

_ You n-o-n-v-e-r-b-a-l now? _ Sami clarified, and Zion nodded.

_ Why? _

Zion shrugged. They didn’t know. Feelings were complicated. Sami smiled sympathetically.

After a few minutes of no signing Zion picked their fidget cube back up. They liked that about their friendship with Sami, and Dale too. They could exist peacefully in silence.

After a while Sami signed Dale’s name sign at Zion, who quirked their head to show that they didn’t understand. Sami tried again  _ Dale here? _

Zion set down the cube and signed  _ Call Dale here? _ Sami nodded.  _ Yes _ . Sami smiled and slipped out of the lab so the light from the phone wouldn’t irritate them.

When Sami reentered the room Dale was with her. Zion waved. They waved back.

The three spent the rest of lunch period, and most of study hall in the lab. Even when Sami and Dale had to go, they promised to tell Zion’s teachers that they weren’t feeling great.

Matthias was looking everywhere for Taylor. Where was his sis- sibling? That was going to take some getting used to. He had realized a while ago that his parents might not be correct in their views. So he googled it on the school library computer. In the end he figured out that was still a christian. He was just also a good person who didn’t use the Bible to justify racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia. He had a heart, and God damn him if he wouldn’t use it.

When he saw them in the lunchroom he immediately ran over to them, ignoring the lunchline. “Taylor!” Taylor looked up, surprised, a grin appearing on their face.

“Matty!”

He slid into the seat next to them. “So, it  _ is _ Taylor now, right?”

“Yep.”

“Cool. Who are your friends?”

“I’m Amir.”

“Nico. I'm genderfluid and also a satanist.”

Amir groaned. “Nico could you consider not trying to antagonize every cishet male you meet?”

“I’m gay actually.”

“Really?” Taylor said.

“I’m sorry for trying to rile you up, but I am actually a satanist so sorry.”

“Ok. I can deal with that.” Matthias took a deep breath. “I’m Matthias, if you didn’t know.”


	3. Chapter 3

Amir was pan. He knew that. He could deal with that. Amir found a lot of people hot, or cute, or pretty, and he did it quickly. He knew that, and he could deal with that. The thing is he couldn’t really deal with the fact he found the brother of the person living in his house really  _ really _ hot.

That was weird. That was really weird. So he went to Nico about it. Who better to go to about weird stuff then Oak Town’s resident satanist punk?

“Dude, that’s weird.” Nico said, and Amir had to agree with him.

“Yep.”

“I wouldn’t try to fuck him while his sibling is in your house.”

“I’m not- what- no!”

Nico snorted “chill dude. It’s ok to have a crush. A-ok. Just don’t… yeah don’t tell Taylor. I don’t want them to think you’re using them to get into Matthias’ pants. Wait are you?”

“No!” Amir elbowed him hard, and Nico started laughing.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

Amir sighed and poked at a fake skull in Nico’s room. “It’s constantly Halloween in your room.”

“Perfect.”

“It’s December.”

“And?”

“You celebrate Christmas.”

“That’s what the antlers are for.” Nico gestured at his head, where he was wearing black antlers.

“This is why Papa is terrified of you.”

“I’m proud.”

“I told him you would be.”

“Yeah…. You wanna go outside and chat ‘you better watch out’ at passerby?”

“Not Christian, remember?”

“So? I’m not Christian either. It’s fun.”

“I’m not scaring the shit out of nurses for fun.”

“Fine!” he dramatically fell into Amir’s lap. “Wanna watch something?”

“Not  _ Criminal Minds _ .”

“You’re crushing me, Amir, crushing me.  _ Sherlock _ ?”

“No murder, jeez. I’d think you were a murderer.”

“I’m more the hapless victim that gets saved by Spencer Reid or Sherlock Holmes and falls hopelessly in love.”

“Aren’t you a lesbian?” Amir said, pushing him out of his lap.

“And?”

He elbowed Nico. “Lesbians don’t fall in love with characters like Reid and Sherlock.”

“I should hope not, Sherlock is gay, and I don’t care what canon says, Reid is too.”

“I hate you.” Amir buried his face in his hands. “You’re annoying.”

“Hate you too. Let’s watch Bob Ross.”

Amir sighed. “Big extremes, Neeks. Huge ones.”

Dale couldn’t sleep. She loved sleeping usually, but this was not fun. She didn’t even know why she agreed to come to her cousin Haley’s slumber party. Haley was 12, Dale was 16. She didn’t like it here, surrounded by middle schoolers. So she pulled out her phone.

Dale: If either of you are awake can you pick me up? I’m at my cousin’s place.

Zion: Bold of you to assume I sleep.

Zion: I’m on my way.

Sami: Guys, it’s 1 am.

Sami: Can we get ice cream?

Dale: Sounds great. C U soon.

She lay back and stared at the glow-in-the-dark unicorns that Haley has plastered to her ceiling.

Zion: I’m outside, Dale.

Zion: I can’t believe I’m doing this.

Zion: Sami’s the mom friend.

Sami: It’s true.

Dale: I’m coming.

She picked up her bag and snuck out of the basement, out to where Zion’s car was. She tapped on the glass, and Zion rolled it down.

“Hey, sweetheart. Need a ride?”

Dale laughed, sliding into the passenger seat. “I may be wearing a tank top and shorts, but I’m not a prostitute.”

“If this wasn’t my car you’d be screwed. Literally.” Zion gunned the car and started driving off.

“Who else would have a black car with a green lightning bolt?” Dale gestured at Zion’s hair, which, just like the car, was black with a green stripe.

“Some other nightmare.” they turned a corner sharply and Dale, who had forgotten to buckle in, nearly slammed into the door.

“Nightmare is right.”

“Babe, I’m flattered.”

Dale tries to ignore the blood rushing to her cheeks. “Babe?”

“I called Sami dude today, so I’m trying to break the dude habit.”

“Doesn’t she like… not mind.”

“Oh she’s fine with it. But anxiety is a bitch. Plus, she could be signalling to me that it annoys the fuck out of her. Fucking social cues.” Zion slammed their head down onto the steering wheel.

“Eyes on the road!” Dale screeched. “And don’t hurt yourself.”

“It’s better than cutting.” Zion’s voice was so casual that an outsider could mistake it for joking, but Dale knew Zion too well. She could hear the thin layer of pain behind their words.

“Hey. Zion.” she said softly. “It’s still self harm. Have you been working on those techniques we talked about?”

“We’re here.” they sharply parked in front of Sami’s house and pulled out their phone to text her. Dale could tell they’re avoiding the question. But Dale knew that she’d avoid it too, so she can’t really blame Zion. But Zion can’t blame her for wanting to help them.

Sami slid into the backseat and immediately picked up on the awkwardness taking place between the other two. “Everything okay?” she asked. Zion took that as the cue to groan loudly.

“No.” they said when they were done.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

“Want to try to understand?” Sami said it softly, but Dale kned what she was trying to do. She wanted to figure out what's going on, and with Zion that usually involved talking through feelings till Zion understood what was happening in their brain.

Zion sighed. “Yeah. I do.” they picked at the side of their thumb till Dale grasped their hands.

“Ok. So start telling us what’s setting you off.”

“Whenever I’m around either of you I feel weird, and I get red and just don;t understand my emotions and I don’t know!” Sami and Dale were quiet for a second before Sami spoke.

“Zion, that sounds like you have a crush on us.”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, that works out. Sorry.” Zion shoves their stim necklace into their mouth and starts chewing on it nervously.

“Well, I, um, I have a, um, crush? On you two? Also.” Dale word vomits.

“Yes, also me.”

The three sit there for a second and then they all laughed. Well, Zion more grinned than laughed, but it was comfortable.

“Are we dating?” they asked, spitting out their necklace.

“If you want to?”

“Yes.” Sami said as soon as Dale finished speaking. “I would very much like to date the both of you. Zion?”

“I’d like that.”

“Is our first date going to be getting ice cream at-” Sami checked the clock “1:30 in the morning?”

“Sounds good to me.” Zion said, starting the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it obvious Zion is my favorite? And yeah, the romance is moving kinda fast but who cares. No one's reading this but like one person and one of my friends.


End file.
